s is the
question which everybody is asking and to which our investigations enable
us to furnish a precise reply.

"Two years ago, in other words, three years after the pretended death of
Arsene Lupin, the police, having discovered or believing they had
discovered that Arsene Lupin was really none other than one Floriani,
born at Blois and since lost to sight, caused the register to be
inscribed, on the page relating to this Floriani, with the word
'Deceased,' followed by the words 'Under the alias of Arsene Lupin.'

"Consequently, to bring Arsene Lupin back to life, there would be wanted
something more than the undeniable proof of his existence, which would
not be impossible. The most complicated wheels in the administrative
machine would have to be set in motion, and a decree obtained from the
Council of State.

"Now it would seem that M. Valenglay, the Prime Minister, together with
the Prefect of Police, is opposed to making any too minute inquiries
capable of opening up a scandal which the authorities are anxious to
avoid. Bring Arsene Lupin back to life? Recommence the struggle with
that accursed scoundrel? Risk a fresh defeat and fresh ridicule? No, no,
and again no!

"And thus is brought about this unprecedented, inadmissible,
inconceivable, disgraceful situation, that Arsene Lupin, the hardened
thief, the impenitent criminal, the robber-king, the emperor of burglars
and swindlers, is able to-day, not clandestinely, but in the sight and
hearing of the whole world, to pursue the most formidable task that he
has yet undertaken, to live publicly under a name which is not his own,
but which he has incontestably made his own, to destroy with impunity
four persons who stood in his way, to cause the imprisonment of an
innocent woman against whom he himself has accumulated false evidence,
and at the end of all, despite the protests of common sense and thanks
to an unavowed complicity, to receive the hundred millions of the
Mornington legacy.

"There is the ignominious truth in a nutshell. It is well that it should
be stated. Let us hope, now that it stands revealed, that it will
influence the future conduct of events."

"At any rate, it will influence the conduct of the idiot who wrote that
article," said Lupin, with a grin.

He dismissed Mlle. Levasseur and rang up Major d'Astrignac on the
telephone.

"Is that you, Major? Perenna speaking."

"Yes, what is it?"

"Have you read the article in the _Echo de Fr